Life Less Ordinary
by A Friend.I Hope
Summary: Alice/Hatter- Begins at the end of the second episode end of the movie and continues on into the lives of Alice and Hatter on the other side of the Looking Glass. I label everything I write as "T" regardless.
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own anything.**

She saw the "construction worker." He wore normal clothes, no hat, not a smidge of darkness around his eyes, and his hair was brown, but she still knew.

"Hatter!" she yelled, running and jumping straight into his arms.

She cringed at the feel of gauze against the spots where the nurses had taken blood and shoved in IV's. She breathed out in a choked gasp as the air raced out of her lungs and her throat filled with things unsaid. He sighed in return and held her close.

"Finally," he said, one of the many bursts of words and jumbles of letters in his head.

"You have no idea how happy I am to see you," she told him sincerely.

She had thought that she'd never see him again and that the last memories she'd have were those of him telling her to go home without him, with a blasé tone that tore her to pieces.

She let him go and backed up, looking at the way he'd changed since that last time she'd seen him. He had the prickle of stubble, a haircut that marked him as any other person walking the streets, and the complexion of a normal human, without the stark contrast between dark and light that usually played on the faces of Wonderlanders, but she still saw her same Hatter.

He leaned in to kiss her and she angled herself and brought her lips to his, despite the look of pure confusion and horror that played across her mother's face.

"I missed you," he whispered fervently and achingly.

She only answered him with another kiss, a kiss that she meant wholeheartedly and more honestly than she ever had before.

For once, she didn't think about how embarrassing it was that her mother was watching her kiss someone whom she thought was a total stranger; she didn't think about what was wise or what his "intentions" were. They'd been through too much and left too much undone to think about details right then.

"Alice!" her mother finally screeched, her voice cracking. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Oh," she and Hatter chorused.

Hatter wheeled around. "Hi, Mrs.-uh," he chuckled nervously.

"Hamilton," Alice whispered.

"Hamilton! Mrs. Hamilton, I apologize about the shock, but I- Alice and I, we're good friends, you see?"

"Friends?" she asked suspiciously.

"Well, that's what you are when you break up, right? Friends?"

"Break up?" Mrs. Hamilton questioned again.

"Alice, help me out, yeah?" he murmured anxiously out of the side of his mouth.

"Mom, this is Hatter, David," she looked to Hatter for confirmation of his pseudonym; he nodded. "David Hatter is an ex of mine, one that I didn't get around to introducing you to."

"You dated a construction worker? And what happened to Jack? Was it the ring? I told you that he probably didn't mean it the way you thought."

"Jack wasn't who he said he was, Mom."

"They never are, Alice," she confessed cynically.

"Hatter, can I talk to you outside?" Alice asked.

"Sure thing," Hatted replied, glancing at her mother, whose hands were firmly placed on her hips.

The two of them looked back nervously as Alice closed the apartment door behind her.

"What are we going to do?" Alice said, frustrated. She stopped to think for a moment. "Wait, how are you even here? Where did you get the clothes? Where are you staying?"

She was rambling and gesturing wildly, her mouth transforming in to a sternly-straight line and her eyebrows scrunching closer and closer with every worry.

He simply smiled.

"Hatter, this is serious! What happens when someone finds out you don't even have a birth certificate?"

He kissed her softly; first, on her forehead and then her cheek.

"Hatter!"

He laughed and kissed her lips. She almost kissed him back, almost.

"I need some answers."

"I have everything, love. Jack gave me the name of a good forger. The least he could do, I suppose, least that's what I told him. I've got everything. I have stuff I don't even know the meaning of."

"You thug," she teased, "you bullied the King."

"To be honest, it's not that hard, kind of a wimp," he said with a shrug, "Mommy's boys I guess."

"So, what about a resume?"

"I've volunteered with refugees and worked the 'stock market'-whatever that is."

"Immigration papers? Visa? Green Card? You know, with that accent no one will believe that you're from any English town farther south than Liverpool, let alone a full-blown American."

"Alice, I have it all." He stuffed his hand in his back-pocket and pulled out a driver's license. "Look, I have a birthday and everything," he added smiling.

"You didn't have a birthday before?" she asked, shocked.

"Did Wonderland look like the kind of place where you celebrated living for another year?"

"No, it didn't. But, you never even knew when it was?"

"Nope," he answered, rolling back and forth on his heels.

"So, you just made it up? How'd you choose the day?" She didn't understand how someone could just pick their birthday.

"Just picked it out of me hat, so to speak," he admitted.

"Let me see," she said, yanking the license from his hand with more strength than she intended. "The 29th of October," she read out. "You're kidding, right?"

"Why?" he asked, clueless and confused.

"My birthday is October 16th. I mean not right on the dot, but of all of the 12 months to choose," she drifted off.

"October 16th? I don't know when that is, but I'll try to remember."

"There is so much I have to teach you before we go back in there with my mother," she sighed.

After all, her mom could ask the simplest question and still catch Hatter totally off-guard: where he was from, what his parents were like, how they met, all sorts of things. Her head started to spin with all the possibilities.

"Hey? Hey, Alice?" Hatter said, putting his hands on her shoulders and gently shaking her out of her stupor. "You really worry too much. Just trust me, I have it under control."

"What city are you from?" she shot back.

"Bradford," he said, smiling, quite pleased with himself.

"Where is that?" she asked smartly, tipping her head and raising an eyebrow.

"North of Liverpool," he answered jokingly; but when he saw how her serious expression didn't falter in the slightest, he added, "West Yorkshire."

"Fine, maybe you do know a thing or two."

"You see? I've got everything under control. And now…" he trailed off.

"Now-" she began, before she was cut off…by lips.

His lips.

He had a little more than the average five o' clock shadow and it pricked at her a little, but it was not all uncomfortable, she rather liked it, mostly because she rather liked kissing him in the first place. There was the quiet sound of their lips parting; it barely had the chance to echo before the two of them leaned back in. She put her hands on his cheeks, lightly feeling the bristle on her fingers. She smiled, grinned, against his lips.

"I thought I was never going to see you again," she whispered sadly.

"Hell no, I'm not done with you," he said back, against her neck as he kissed it.

"Do I get a choice?" she tested.

"Only if you want one."

"Doesn't matter right now, does it?" she admitted.

He kissed her jaw line, all the way back to her ear and nibbled at it. She shivered.

"Maybe we should go inside. My mom is waiting," she babbled nervously.

He groaned. "I guess."


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Sorry about the numerous grammar mistakes in the last chapter…I figured out the problem; my "s" key has the tendency to stick, so the "s" doesn't always type out…Also, for Hatter's accent I try to do it phonetically; so, when he says "me" instead if "my", it's because that's how it sounds when he says it…Anyway, I hope this one is better…**

They went inside hesitantly, sneaking as if thousands of suits were on their tail. Alice felt the need to close the door as quietly as possible behind her. It was just her mom, after all, but she was entering the lioness' den. Her mother was judgmental and opinionated, especially when it came to Alice's guys. Her mother thought that she dropped guys too quickly and now thought she picked them up too quickly.

"Mom?" Alice questioned into the empty foyer. "Mom?"

"Alice?" Carol answered, emerging from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a ratty dishrag. "Oh, David," she added in feigned hospitality.

"Mom, I thought Hatter might be able to eat dinner with us tonight, since he never got to. Then you can get to know him, like you should have before," she said, ashamed.

"I don't have anything special prepared, Alice," she said sharply.

"Maybe we should go out then," Alice suggested.

"I don't know," she complained.

"Please, Mom, please," Alice begged. "Hatter's a good guy."

"Alright, for you," she decided. Then, she plumped the waves in her hair and tossed the rag onto the arm of the couch, opting to ignore Hatter entirely. "Let's just go down the street to the little place on the corner," she offered.

They walked out the door, Carol Hamilton first and then Hatter and Alice side by side behind her. Their knuckles kept bumping and their fingers brushed past each other, until Hatter finally took her hand in his. She looked at him, a little hesitant, she wasn't sure why, but it felt different. Only days ago, she kissed Jack on the mats at work, calling him "Honey" and flirting, but, with Hatter, everything meant something more. They'd come all this way. They used to be total strangers who didn't share a shred of trust. Suddenly, they became something she didn't even understand. She told Hatter, in Wonderland, that she liked Jack more than any guy before him, but Hatter had taught her that the feelings that she had for Jack were nothing compared to what she could feel. She had known Jack for six weeks, but, in all that time, she had never felt the way she did with Hatter.

She hung on Hatter's every word and every action; when he told her to leave Wonderland, her heart broke in a way that she never knew it could. Jack had betrayed her, her father had forgotten her, then remembered, and then died, but none of that felt remotely close.

"Alice? You okay?" Hatter asked, letting go of her hand, trying not to push his luck.

"What?" she asked, dazed. "Yeah, I'm great."

She tried to fake a smile.

"Come on, Alice. I know you," he said, which earned him a disgruntled look that Carol let slip. "We held the Heart's Casino at gunpoint together," he whispered.

"Shh, you make me sound like a criminal."

"You shot at suits, held a room full of people at gun point, and threatened to have a woman's finger cut off; I don't think it's me fault you sound like a criminal," he reminded her.

He tossed his arm around her shoulder and planted a kiss on her hair. She laughed and smiled and blushed.

Carol groaned.

"Where are we going?" Hatter whispered to Alice.

"Sandwich shop. It's where she meets with notaries and the landlord. You get your sandwich, eat, and leave. She wants this to be quick," Alice explained.

"And here I thought I was making some progress," he sighed.

"I'm not sure how much progress you'll make with her. This isn't how it usually goes. Usually, she tells me how ridiculous I am for letting a perfectly good guy go. I'm not sure how she's going to react to me holding on to a guy that she doesn't trust."

"Hey-" Hatter began, only to be cut off by Carol.

"Here we are," she announced, keeping her back to them.

She walked in the front door of the restaurant to the tune of the little gold bell on the hinge.

They all sat down at a booth: Hatter and Alice on one side of the table, and Carol on the other. They ate quietly. Hatter never said a word, because halfway through it Carol would cut him off. Eventually, he just stopped trying. Carol talked about all of Alice's ex-boyfriends ad nauseum. She talked about how handsome they were, the types of families that they came from, their style, and their fancy jobs.

Alice became furious.

"Mom! Stop!" Alice shouted. "I can't believe you'd be like this. If you're not going to have an open mind, then there isn't any use in trying to please you."

Alice walked out, her stubbornness lighting a fire in her.

There was so much about Wonderland that was exactly like home. At home there were people who were just like the Wonderlanders, the kind of folks that just couldn't see beyond the superficial things and the kind of folks that sat deadlocked in their prejudgment.

Hatter got up behind her and chased after her.

"Alice!" he called out. "Alice, hey, it's okay."

He followed beside her as she charged forward.

"It's not okay, Hatter," she said, as she turned around. "It's not okay. I knew that she was going to be upset, but this is ridiculous! It would be acceptable if she just ignored you or cut you off or even interrogated you. But, to go and talk like that! She's treating you so terribly! She can't do that to you," Alice ranted.

"Hey, it doesn't matter. When it comes down to it, what your mom says and thinks isn't what's important to me anyway. She could say anything to me. So, only be mad if it's because it matters to _you_, only be mad if what she says hurts you, because being mad for me is a waste of time," he said as he held onto her shoulders.

"I hurts me."

"Alright, you want me to do something about it?"

"No, let's just go."

"You want to come to my flat? Jack gave me the keys and I'm still trying to figure out what everything does," he proposed.

She silently nodded her head.

"Come on then," he laughed. They walked down the street, his arm across her shoulders and her arm around his back.


End file.
